Tuesday, May 1, 2012

New Wyoming Wolf Plan Will Allow Killing of Hundreds of Wolves

Monday, 30 April 2012

Press Release
Science and Environmental

CHEYENNE, Wyo.--(ENEWSWPF)--April 30 - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today
that Wyoming has passed legislation and an amendment to its
wolf-management plan that will meet federal approval and trigger removal
of Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the state.

The new law and plan — to take effect later this year when wolves are
removed from the federal endangered species list — increase the area of
Wyoming where wolves would be designated “predators” and could be
killed without limit; they also keep in place a “trophy game management
area,” where hunting will be allowed to dramatically reduce wolf
populations.

“Wyoming’s wolf-management plan is a recipe for wolf slaughter that
will only serve to incite more of the prejudice against wolves that led
to their destruction in the first place,” said Michael Robinson of the
Center for Biological Diversity, which has been working for two decades
to save and recover wolves throughout the West. “Removal of federal
protections for wolves has been a disaster in Idaho and Montana and will
be even worse in Wyoming.”

While wolves would remain fully protected within Yellowstone and
Grand Teton national parks, elsewhere in Wyoming they would be subject
to shooting, trapping and snaring, including 83 percent of the state
where they will be considered “predators” and there will be no limits on
their killing. The remaining portion of the state would be considered a
“trophy game management area,” where killing wolves would be permitted,
with the goal of reducing the population from approximately 29 packs to
around 10.

“Along with the killing of wolves in Idaho and Montana, which had
their protection taken away last year through a back-door congressional
rider, this planned persecution of wolves in Wyoming could be
devastating to the beautiful animals’ survival in the northern Rocky
Mountains,” said Robinson. “Killing most of Wyoming’s wolves will hurt
wolves in Colorado, too, where they’re only starting to return by way of
Wyoming.”

Since wolf hunting and trapping seasons opened last fall, 378 wolves
have been killed in Idaho, which has no cap on killing and several
ongoing open seasons. An additional 166 wolves were killed in Montana,
which has now closed its season. Contrary to promises, hunting and
trapping have appeared to inflame anti-wolf sentiment, with comments and
pictures appearing on the Internet that boast of wolf killing and call
for more slaughter.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has reopened a two-week comment period,
during which feedback is sought from the public before the agency
finalizes the delisting rule.

Background

In October 2011 the Obama
administration announced finalization of an agreement between the Fish
and Wildlife Service and Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead whereby the agency would
remove wolves in Wyoming from the federal endangered species list and
the state would only be required to keep alive 100 wolves or 10 breeding
pairs outside Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks (which
together provide habitat for a few dozen wolves that would remain
protected while in the parks).

After pups are born within the next few weeks, it is likely that more
than 500 wolves will live outside the national parks in Wyoming. The
state plan will allow their unregulated killing throughout most of the
state.

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At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare
of human beings is deeply linked to nature - to the existence in our
world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity
has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work
to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the
brink of extinction. We do so through science, law, and creative media,
with a focus on protecting the lands, waters, and climate that species
need to survive.

The film offers an abbreviated history of the relationship between wolves and people—told from the wolf’s perspective—from a time when they coexisted to an era in which people began to fear and exterminate the wolves.

The return of wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains has been called one of America’s greatest conservation stories. But wolves are facing new attacks by members of Congress who are gunning to remove Endangered Species Act protections before the species has recovered.

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Inescapably, the realization was being borne in upon my preconditioned mind that the centuries-old and universally accepted human concept of wolf character was a palpable lie... From this hour onward, I would go open-minded into the lupine world and learn to see and know the wolves, not for what they were supposed to be, but for what they actually were.

-Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf

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“If you look into the eyes of a wild wolf, there is something there more powerful than many humans can accept.” – Suzanne Stone